Did Hurricane Katrina Expose Racism in America

Adolph vibrating reed is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and Stephen Steinberg is a professor of sociology at Queens College in sweet York City. Both vibrating reed and Steinberg chall(a)enge the tendency of polity makers and other commentators to decoct on African-the Statesns as the source of the problems faced by upstart siege of siege of siege of Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and accentuate the need to address race and exiguity concerns effectively. In reed and Steinbergs argument they expose the despicable to prospect policy.The alleged(a) goal of the design is to break up the concentrations of poverty, to break up the national enclaves of poverty which existed in the urban center and to really give those low income residents oftentimes choice and chance. Reed and Steinberg look at the moving to opportunitypolicy as a false theory and an empty slogan. When the moving to opportunity policy is stripped of all its var nish it is sightly a program that leave behind result in a smaller New Orleans that is depleted of its poverty population.Despite the 200 add-on signatories of well cognize individuals in the Statesn social science, the secret agenda of the program was manifestly overshadowed. Reed and Steinberg state how the federal Government is solely focusing on the medicine dealers and gang members of the ghettos and poverty struck neighborhoods overlooking the industrious item-by-item mothers and disreputable heroic grandmothers that also stay in those same communities divergence a absolute majority of them to put up for themselves. Reed and Steinberg provide information that steer the true colors of the moving to opportunity policy. Providing quotes from citizens in powerful positions.A politically connected white lawyer in the city remarked that Katrina provided the improveive opportunity to rebuild New Orleans into a city much like Charleston. Keep in mind that Charleston has only long black servant class for its tourist economy tho a white electoral majority. Which leads to a nonher point made by Reed and Steinberg, if the moving to opportunity policy is passed and everything pans let on as planned than lah will than be a Republican state. And somehow out of all the evident flaws in the moving to opportunity policy the 200 plus signatories failed to realize them or at least pick out them.Reed and Steinberg did a wonderful job in supporting their clause, it would retain been a tone bit better if they had included a nonher example other than the moving to opportunity policy. Shelby Steele is a research fellow at the Hoover installation and political commentator beseechs that the African-Americans of New Orleans and other African-Americans should focus on meaningful methods for overcoming their underdevelopment as revealed by Hurricane Katrina rather than emphasizing the shame of face cloth racism as the cause of their phlight.Steele states the s ingle massiveest problem in America is African-Americans and Whites atomic number 18 forever blaming one another for each others great shames. Steele expresses her opinion of how this despair is not something that was just formulated among the poverty smitten but a savoring that has always been there, harvesting below the wax of our culture. A state of being in which is just now in the new millennium being discovered. Black lower status can not be overcame by white state. Blacks most also take function for the change they want to see.Steele is saying each race is equally at guilt and how much of a shame it is that it takes a natural hazard such as Hurricane Katrina for the nation to take notice of this social issue. Steele had a good thesis, the idea just needed to a greater extent detail and elaboration. Vincetta Ashley Dunnell November 18, 2010 530 P. M On that note my soulfulnessal opinion lies with Reed and Steinberg in that I do believe Hurricane Katrina exposed raci sm in America. How could a force of nature turn over racial preferences and prejudice?It cant. It just so happened that Hurricane Katrina was the perfect excuse to play the racial blame game. It was a great reason to release years of built of racial tension. And the perfect opportunity to push low class,poverty stricken blacks out of a infamous city because of racial stigmas. The federal government is using the moving to opportunity policy as a coverup to deceive the public into accepting the policy as a beneficial program but failing to naive tell who the policy is benefiting.Somehow this terrible scheme slipped by the eye of 200 plus prominent individuals of the American social science community. They failed to recognize that if this policy is passed yes there will be no gang patrolled, drug infested New Orleans but there will also be no essence in New Orleans, all the history and self-exaltation will be wiped away. All the kind-hearted, operative Blacks just attempting to mak e a better day for their families will be left in a worse position than they began in.All for the sake of America trying to apprehend the ideal of a perfect nation thinking that they can area all the horseshit under the rug, forgetting that when you do so the lump of dirt is unflustered there. Ignoring the problem that our nation has forever had is not going to befriend any. Trying to push the low class blacks out of New Orleans just to build suburbs and tourist attractions will help the economy but the social status will not change. While poverty still exists so does the main problem in America.Did Hurricane Katrina Expose Racism in America?Did Hurricane Katrina Expose Racism in America? (A Case Study) in the lead beginning this case study, Hurricane Katrina was a force of nature that ravaged the city of New Orleans, Louisiana in 2005 leaving thousands of African Americans homeless and impoverished. assume the affirmative position of the debate in question is Adolph Reed and Stephen Steinberg. They argue that Hurricane Katrina did, in fact expose racism in America. They want to emphasize the need to address race and poverty concerns and focus more on blacks.Opposing them is Shelby Steele. He believes that blacks should begin focusing more on ways to stamp down their underdevelopment or else of blaming whites for their predicament. Reed and Steinberg begin their argument with a quoted statement from Barbara Bush. So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them. This quote already shows the attitude of white America towards the situation of those suffering at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.They also mention the chance upon to Opportunity program that basically only addresses a miniscule luck of the poverty stricken homeless GIVEN if they were qualified. Needless to say the majority of them did not participate in this program as a result, they were to fend for themselves. The extent of white racism was best illustrated by the signing of a government-sponsored resettlement program by 200-plus of the nations most historied social science names.This program is a classified by Reed and Steinberg as a relocation scheme disguised as a voluntary program designed to slay impoverished and unemployed blacks out of the area in attempts to blot out some of the nations more darker areas. Move to Opportunity became a perverse euphemism for policy stepping down of the poor people left behind who are in do-or-die(a) need of programs, services, and jobs. Steele dispels the accusation placed on Hurricane Katrina in regards to exposing racism in America by sourcing the cause in blacks themselves.Steele explains that whites give birth in a sense, owned up to their responsibilities and made themselves viewer to racism. That we as blacks blame our inferiority on white racism therefore increasing white shame. Subsequently, for whites to defend that black inferiori ty is a product of white shame, they are admitting racism. Steele advocates that some(prenominal) races, especially blacks accept responsibleness for their shames as each race always tries to usurp power from the other. We are attributing our underdevelopment to whites in order to shame them instead of claiming responsibility for our own progress or lack thereof.The approach of blacks in America is undermined by the constant irresponsibility of the race as a whole. From things to not taking care of our children to crimes, we essentially placed ourselves into this predicament. We are not living up to our end of the bargain. Black responsibility needs to be acknowledged by us in order for us to progress. Were we to do this, our open acknowledgment of our own underdevelopment will allow whites to hold witness over us however they will surrender to acknowledge our overcoming of our underdevelopment.In a nutshell Steele is saying we must hold ourselves accountable for our own underd evelopment and by doing so we can finally achieve the long awaited progression that we have been looking for. After evaluating both sides of the debate, I chose to identify with Shelby Steeles argument. not only does his argument directly answer the question, it allows for more personal inquiring among blacks. Are we really using whites as a clutch as to why we have not progressed? Is it more of clutch or more of an innate bitterness between blacks and whites that has developed and evolved over centuries of conflict?Blacks have been at the bottom of the totem pole of society for centuries by the hands of whites. Although I believe that whites in fact do impede black progression in society due to concealed racism among other things, I do not agree however that it is entirely their fault. Both races are in a power struggle straining to take reckon and to make the other look inferior. It is this childish nature of these two races that stopover the progression of our country as a who le. When both races accept responsibility for their shames then proper progress can be possible.Until then, racism will always be a factor of white shame and inferiority will always be a factor of black shame. I believe that Hurricane Katrina played a part in exposing racism. I feel as if Hurricane Katrina forced racism out into the open. No white person would have expressed any racist concerns prior to Katrina. Katrina basically served as a mental agent for white America, effectively expressing their attitudes towards black America. Also, I believe that if the majority of the population ravaged by Katrina were white they would have been rescued almost immediately if not sooner.The painstakingly long response time to the crisis was evidently showed the amount of concern and sympathy the government had for the blacks of New Orleans. Racism is still alive they are just concealing it. Thousands of blacks in New Orleans depended on the government to rescue them from a antic that they could not control. And additionally the government attempted to relocate the survivors of the incident to remove the poor blacks and replace the area with whites. This illustrated the true intentions of the government.The strife that exists between whites and blacks are so low-key that it takes an act of God to bring it out of the shadows. on that point is no doubt that racism is still alive in America however the extent of racism has definitely lessened over time. I chose to side with Steeles argument because I identify with the argument that blacks and whites have a complex that wont allow them to accept responsibility for their shames. If it were not for Hurricane Katrina, racism may have never been brought into the light.